287 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested, Harassed, and Sentenced in February 2021

Based on original reports by Minghui.org

In February 2021, 287 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested, harassed, or sentenced. Of the practitioners, 100 were arrested, 126 were harassed, and 61 were sentenced. Minghui.org also received new information for January 2021 and 2020. These include an additional 64 arrests, harassment incidents, and 53 sentences for January 2021, bringing the total number of impacted practitioners to 408. For 2020, an additional 94 arrests, 249 cases of harassments, and 47 sentences were reported, bringing the known number of arrests and incidents in 2020 to 16,474.

Nationwide Persecution

The arrests and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners in February 2021 took place in 20 provinces and municipalities. The provinces of Shandong (41), Hubei (33), Hebei (28), Heilongjiang (24), and Jiangxi (18) recorded the most practitioners arrested or harassed in

February. Sichuan, Liaoning, and Beijing also recorded cases in the double digits, from 12 to 15. The remaining 12 regions had single digit cases.

The practitioners reported sentenced in February 2021 came from 41 cities in 19 provinces and centrally-controlled municipalities. The province of Liaoning registered the most cases (18), followed by Heilongjiang (15) and Jiangsu (11). The remaining 16 provinces reported sentencing between one and nine practitioners.

Sentences

The prison terms given to practitioners ranged from five months to twelve years, with an average of 3.14 years. Thirteen practitioners’ terms were unknown.

A total of 37 practitioners were each fined between 1,000 and 200,000 yuan by the courts for a total of 723,000 yuan, averaging 19,565 yuan per person.

The 120 practitioners arrested between 2020 and February 2021 were between 48 and 82 years old. Eighteen of them were 65 or older at the time of their sentencing, and their prison terms ranged from 14 months to 10 years.